For the Love of Lasagna
by SouthernChickie
Summary: A PWP ficlet. Mac and Richie warm fuzzies. Complete.


Wahoo! Time for some general fluff PWP type stuff. This popped into my head today while watching Full House reruns. (Now THERE'S a warning for you). NEWAY... completely unbetaed because quite frankly it would be stupid to bother my beloved Professor Lori Belle with such drabble. Please review!  
  
Duncan and Anne were talking on the couch in the loft while Richie was ignoring them and playing with the small new born Mary.  
  
"Rich?" Duncan asked for what, judging by his tone of voice, was the third or forth time.  
  
"Yeah?" he asked looking up from the grinning little girl.  
  
"Do you want to give Anne her baby back?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, sorry."  
  
"It's okay," Anne smiled at him taking the baby. "I just need to get her to her grandmother's."  
  
"Ah, shift starting?"  
  
"No, I'm meeting Jennifer at the hospital."  
  
"The babysitter?" Richie asked helping Duncan pick up the dirty dishes off the coffee table.  
  
"Yeah, she's doing a report for school and wants to do it on me."  
  
"What sort of report?" Duncan asked handing Richie a wash rag for the dishes.  
  
"Apparently I'm her hero," Anne beamed.  
  
"Man, I hated those reports," Richie groaned. Then in a child's voice: "My hero is my mommy because...."  
  
Anne laughed. "You wrote about your mother?"  
  
"No. I never knew who to write about, so I copped out and did firemen and what not."  
  
Anne's smile faded. "You didn't have a hero growing up?"  
  
Richie shrugged. "I didn't grow up in the best part of town. What was I going to say? 'I want to be like my neighbor the drug dealer'?"  
  
Duncan could see Anne's psychological side coming out and came to Richie's rescue. "You'd better give that girl someone to write about then."  
  
"I suppose so," she agreed distractedly.  
  
Duncan picked up the diaper bag. "I'll walk you to your car. Richie, you mind starting the dishes?"  
  
"It's what you invited me for isn't it?" he teased. "See you later, Anne."  
  
"Bye, Richie."  
  
"I'll be right back," Duncan said lowering the elevator gate.  
  
"Sure you will," Richie shot back.  
  
"It's kind of sad, isn't it?" Anne asked once the loft disappeared from view.  
  
"What?"  
  
"That he doesn't have a hero."  
  
Duncan smiled. "Richie's a grown man; he doesn't need a hero other than himself."  
  
"But the way he talks about it, as if it's perfectly normal."  
  
"If you want him to talk to one of your psychologist friends you'll never talk him into it."  
  
"I wasn't going to."  
  
"Sure you weren't."  
  
"Don't tell me this is an immortal thing. I bet you had a hero growing up."  
  
"My father...but I'm not Richie," he back peddled as the elevator stopped. "He's his own breed of human. Besides why worry about what happened when he was a kid? He turned out alright didn't he? You trust him with Mary."  
  
"I'm not saying he's not a good person, Duncan. I'm just saying that every kid should have a hero."  
  
"Richie's not a kid."  
  
"I know, but..."  
  
"Anne, let it drop. You'll only drive yourself insane."  
  
Anne laughed at herself. "Okay. I'll let it go."  
  
Duncan smiled. "No you won't."  
  
"Probably not. I'd better go. Wouldn't be a very good hero if I was late."  
  
"Bye Anne, drive safe."  
  
Duncan went back up to the loft.  
  
"And here I thought you were going to leave me to clean your kitchen," Richie greeted him tossing a dish towel at him. "You can dry."  
  
Duncan moved into position next to Richie. "So..."  
  
"Don't start, Mac," Richie interrupted. "I've already said too much."  
  
"I was just curious."  
  
"Great. With you and Anne on my back I'll be laying on a couch crying about how the big kids used to steal my toy trucks in no time."  
  
"Poor, baby," Duncan cooed.  
  
"Bite me, MacLeod."  
  
"You really never had a hero?" Duncan asked suddenly.  
  
"Why do you care?"  
  
"I don't know; you've just sparked my curiosity."  
  
"Lucky me."  
  
"I know I shouldn't say this..."  
  
"Then don't."  
  
"Why didn't you?"  
  
Sighing, Richie dropped the cloth in the bubbles and looked at Duncan. "Who was I supposed to look up to, Mac? My foster fathers? They were bums. My neighbors? Same story. Friend's parents? Yeah right. The cops? They were never around until I did something wrong..."  
  
"Sorry I asked."  
  
"I told you not to."  
  
"I idolized my father... I just assumed you had someone."  
  
"Mac let it drop." Richie fished out his cloth and finished the dishes. When they had the kitchen cleaned Richie decided to call it a night and Duncan decided to walk him out.  
  
"Do you ever wish things had been different?" Duncan asked while he had Richie cornered in the elevator.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"How you grew up. Don't you ever wonder what would have happened if it had been different?"  
  
"You mean, like, if I had been adopted by some rich people across town?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I think about it, where I'd probably be now. You know, behind the desk at some big corporation at a job I got because I joined the right fraternity or something."  
  
"Oh you went to college in these fantasies?"  
  
"My dad got me in. He knew some people."  
  
"Oh, I see."  
  
"And I'd be 'going steady' with Buffy, or Muffin, or Ginger from the country club. And our parents would be happy because they had decided long ago that we would get married. Then after I was established in the paper cup industry or where ever we'd get married in a ceremony our mothers planned. And we'd live life in our big house with a bunch of kids. And every morning I'd go off to work and every Saturday we'd have some cocktail party to go to..."  
  
"You seem to have thought this through."  
  
"I guess."  
  
"And?" The elevator stopped, but neither made a move to open it.  
  
"And?"  
  
"What else?"  
  
"Nothing else."  
  
"Which do you like better?"  
  
"Well... I probably would have had more toys with the rich people. My very own nanny, too. I'd be miserable because no one paid attention to me... or a total mamma's boy." Richie thought about it. "I don't think I'd change anything."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"The ends kinda justify the means, you know?"  
  
"So you're happy?"  
  
"No, Mac, I hate your guts, but I love your lasagna."  
  
"I'm being serious." Duncan opened the gate.  
  
"Me, too. I wouldn't change anything."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Just so long as I don't have to go back and relive the crappy years, no."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because I like hanging out with you... especially when you show up with groceries because you think I'm not eating unless I'm with you." Duncan looked at him. Richie rolled his eyes. "If things had been different I wouldn't have met you. And when I became immortal I wouldn't have had anyone to go to. I would have never experienced half the stuff I have. I'd be a completely different person. I like who I am."  
  
"I just hate to think that there are kids out there without anyone to look up to. No heroes."  
  
"I never said I didn't have a hero, Mac," Richie pointed out. "I said I didn't have one when they assigned those reports in school. I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
"So you're saying you have a hero?" Duncan asked.  
  
"I'm saying I have someone I look up to." Richie began to leave.  
  
"Anyone I've heard of?"  
  
"Yeah." He kept walking.  
  
"Anyone I know?"  
  
"I assume so."  
  
"Who is it?"  
  
Richie stopped as he was about to turn the corner. "Let's put it this way... I really like his lasagna."  
  
Thanks to Bev who pointed out some errors... I wasn't gonna get this betaed but it got kinda betaed...  
  
Please review! 


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